From "How Long Is Too Long to Stay in Bed? Asking for a friend" (NYT).
I think the right question is not how long but how good — quality, not quantity. That's true about staying in bed and it's true about being on social media. Hence the "mindless" in front of "hour."
Googling, I see this article has also had the title "‘Bed Rotting’ and ‘Hurkle Durkle’: Can You Stay In Bed Too Long?" That's a more exciting headline, especially for those of us who respond to words.
Googling, I see this article has also had the title "‘Bed Rotting’ and ‘Hurkle Durkle’: Can You Stay In Bed Too Long?" That's a more exciting headline, especially for those of us who respond to words.
And it looks as though this article, positing the sort of question you'd want answered by a sleep psychologist, was inspired by a TikTok trend...
... a trend that The Daily Mail had already run with. But the TikTok trend is acknowledged in the second paragraph, so it's not as though the NYT is trying to hide the inspiration that causes me to give this post the tag "MSM reports what's in social media."
Here's the TikTok page full of #hurkledurkling. And here's a page full of "bed rotting" TikToks.
The word I was motivated to look up in the OED, however, is "mindless." Remember the psychologist's warning that it might be "detrimental" to spend "a mindless hour or even longer on social media." As a writer of social media, I'm vigilant about insinuations that reading social media is harmful, and, of course, I see the loophole. My readers are mindful, I could think, self-servingly.
"Mindless" is a word that goes back to Old English. It means "Having no mind; unintelligent, stupid, senseless; acting without concern for the consequences; purposeless; (of an activity, etc.) not requiring thought or skill, undemanding, demonstrating absence of thought or intelligence. Formerly also: †out of one's mind, stupefied, insane (obsolete)."
I like this quote from 1599: "God first made Angels bodilesse pure minds, Then other things, which mindlesse bodies bee" (from Nosce Teipsum, by John Davies).
I like "mindlesse bodies bee." I know it's not about a bee, but I like to mindlessly think it is. Mindlessly think.... hmmm. But I've been up for hours. I've been out and seen the sunrise. I am not disquieted about slipping into something more detrimental.
"Mindless" is a word that goes back to Old English. It means "Having no mind; unintelligent, stupid, senseless; acting without concern for the consequences; purposeless; (of an activity, etc.) not requiring thought or skill, undemanding, demonstrating absence of thought or intelligence. Formerly also: †out of one's mind, stupefied, insane (obsolete)."
I like this quote from 1599: "God first made Angels bodilesse pure minds, Then other things, which mindlesse bodies bee" (from Nosce Teipsum, by John Davies).
I like "mindlesse bodies bee." I know it's not about a bee, but I like to mindlessly think it is. Mindlessly think.... hmmm. But I've been up for hours. I've been out and seen the sunrise. I am not disquieted about slipping into something more detrimental.
***
Why the Soule is United to the Body.
This substance, and this spirit of God's owne making,Is in the body plact, and planted heere;"That both of God, and of the world partaking,"Of all that is, Man might the image beare.
God first made angels bodilesse, pure minds,Then other things, which mindlesse bodies be;Last, He made Man, th' horizon 'twixt both kinds,In whom we doe the World's abridgement see.
Besides, this World below did need one wight,Which might thereof distinguish euery part;Make vse thereof, and take therein delight,And order things with industry and art:
Which also God might in His works admire,And here beneath, yeeld Him both praier and praise;As there, aboue, the holy angels quireDoth spread His glory with spirituall layes.
Lastly, the bruite, unreasonable wights,Did want a visible king on them to raigne:And God, Himselfe thus to the World vnites,That so the World might endlesse blisse obtaine.
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35 comments:
"How Long Is Too Long to Stay in Bed? Asking for a friend"
If you've already urinated.. It was "Too Long".. ALWAYS be in the bathroom when you go to the bathroom
I suppose one could stay in bed too long, but that’s something I don’t relate to. I’m generally up and out of bed by 6AM, getting the kettle on to boil.
But this morning my wife and I stayed in bed and listened to most of a Carvey/Spade “Fly on the Wall” podcast that had us both laughing our fannies off. Carvey and his “Popeye getting kicked in the Balls” impressions first thing in the morning are a cure for what ails ya!
Weariness by all its being effects this refusal to exist; it is only in the refusal to exist. It is, we might say, the very way the phenomenon of the refusal to exist can come about, just as in the order of experience, vision alone is the apprehension of light and hearing alone the perception of sound. Indolence is neither idleness nor rest. Like fatigue, it involves an attitude with regard to action. But it is not a simple indecisiveness, a being overwhelmed by the choices to be made. It does not arise from a lack of deliberation, for it is not deliberating over the end. It occurs after the intention has been formulated. As in William James' famous example, it lies between the clear duty of getting up and the putting of the foot down off the bed. But it also is not a material impossibility of performing an action that is beyond our strength, or the consciousness of that impossibility, since it can be overcome, and the certainty of this possibility constitutes the bad conscience of indolence. It is indeed a sort of aversion to effort but in what sense? Is it the content of unpleasantness or the pain involved in the effort that it foresees and dreads? But indolence is not a fear of pain, nor even a species of that fear. The generic term pain does not express what is specific to the pain associated with effort, and consequently does not enable us to grasp the sense of indolence.
Indolence is essentially tied up with the beginning of an action: the stirring, the getting up. "Oh, don't make them get up That's disaster...," says Rimbaud of "the seated" who breathe essential and desperate indolence. Indolence concerns beginning, as though existence were not there right off, but preexisted the beginning in an inhibition. There is more here than a span of duration, flowing imperceptibility between two moments. Or perhaps the inhibition involved in indolence is also the revealing of the beginning which each instant effects in being an instant.
Indolence is an impossibility of beginning, or, if one prefers, it is the effecting of beginning.
Levinas, Existence and Existents, p.13
Gilbar wins with the first comment.
Before retirement, I pretty much only woke up when it was time to wake up and I would immediately get out of bed get on with the day even if I wasn't actually going to work that day. Today, without a set time of getting up, it depends on whether or not I can actually go back to sleep- if I know I am not going to be able sleep any longer I get up- I don't really gain anything by just laying in bed an extra 20 minutes to an hour. It seems like a waste of time to me.
Sleep psychologist. Another profession cobbled for self.
As a psychologist friend of mine once stated "People go into psychology to find out what's wrong with themselves."
I think you need to put the publisher behind a >click< button, so the reader can 'guess the publication!' before clicking for the answer. How did I know this was in the NYT? Let me count the ways.
I actually went back to bed after breakfast this morning. I can't recall in the past many years the last time that happened. As for today, I simply didn't have a good night's sleep. I completely agree it is quality over quantity. Quality suffered last night likely due to the sudden shift in temperatures that affects the internal HVAC and humidity levels. Also, what Gilbar noted because that played into getting up before going back to bed.
For many/most people with a prostate (the new politically necessary locution) after age 50, the question is not how long to linger in bed but how fast to get out. Also, Why does it have to be so early?
Staying in bed has never had much appeal even if after rising I'm just surfing the net with a cup of coffee from the couch. I'm much more likely to head for bed early.
In the immortal words of Hank Stamper "Drop your cocks and grab your socks. It's daylight in the swamps!"
"Sometime's a Great Notion" Ken Kesey
"I think you need to put the publisher behind a >click< button, so the reader can 'guess the publication!' before clicking for the answer."
I could stop taking the time to add the parenthetical. You can get the info by mousing over. I just don't want people complaining that I've caused them to use one of their 10 free offers or forced them to violate their vow never to go to whatever website.
Think of the thousands of times I type out a parenthetical like this.
To each their own according to they needs.
"Think of the thousands of times I type out a parenthetical like this."
At 15 seconds per parenthetical, that's four extra hours you could have stayed in bed per thousand parentheticals. It sounds like you have an agency craving. You should get that looked at. Oh. I guess it is looked at. Over and over and over.
Get the government (left) out of my bedroom!
(Familiar chant of my youth.)
wight
/wīt/
noun
noun: wight; plural noun: wights
archaic•dialect
a person of a specified kind, especially one regarded as unfortunate.
"he always was an unlucky wight
Mindless describes this sort of article so well. Is there anything so stupid that it can't be presented as an interesting new trend?
Does NYT do any reporting that involves something more than going on social media?
My adult daughter has a TikTok problem. She lies in bed for hours every day watching vapid, staged video clips. Then wonders why she can't meet any decent guys and isn't getting any traction at her job.
My great-aunt was well known in the family for refusing to show her face outside her bedroom until 11:00 am. But I believe she only developed the habit after marrying a wealthy doctor with a cook and housekeeper.
I have a funny inner clock that routinely wakes me five or ten minutes before my alarm, no matter what time it is set for. I can waste time, but I don't do it lying in bed.
"I could stop taking the time to add the parenthetical."
In jest ma'am, in jest. It sometimes seems the NYT makes a habit of pushing the boundaries of irrelevancy to new heights.
Could this question be an extension of that post about making work seasonal?
Eve with no alarm, I'm usually awake by 04:00 -- probably due to half a century of farming -- and will typically lie abed for half an hour or so. Occasionally I'll return to sleep for 90 minutes, in which case it was needed. Most commonly, those 30 minutes serve to allow my body and mind to awaken fully, and when the work day actually begins, at my desk or mounting the tractor, everything's ready to go at peak productivity.
Hopping right out of bed can lead to mental or physical clumsiness, and that latter can be dangerous.
Add a cat, and this whole subject becomes more complex. Cats love to sleep. If you are in bed with a cat (or more) snuggled up beside you, they will look askance at you when you attempt to rise. "WHY are you GETTING UP? Stay here where it's warm and cozy." Convinces me every time. Do dogs do this? Pray tell, Althouse community.
Prior to the pandemic, I had to get up at 5 am for a two-hour commute. Half the time, I had to groan very loudly to achieve this, I was so miserable getting up that early. I often wake up around that time, it is such a pleasure to realize I don't have to get up and can go back to sleep.
Ann Althouse:
Think of the thousands of times I type out a parenthetical like this.
Making the bait prettier isn't largesse.
"Add a cat, and this whole subject becomes more complex. Cats love to sleep."
Bedbugs, however,...
"....or forced them to violate their vow never to go to whatever website."
Now, I don't care who you are, that there is funny
Obligatory thank you for reading ( ) so we don't have to.
And
Why do you keep reading ( )? everbody knows it sucks.
"a person of a specified kind, especially one regarded as unfortunate.
"he always was an unlucky wight""
I looked up "wight" too, because I knew the definition you quote and it didn't seem right in this context.
Back at the time of that poem, it meant a being, a creature.
Then there's the Isle of Wight, famous from "When I'm 64." But that "Wight" seems to come from a word that meant "weight."
I stay in bed only as long as I'm sleeping or needed.
That was great…now you should go…
Q. Why did the chicken cross the road?
A. Because all chickens crave agency.
@Althouse: "Then there's the Isle of Wight, famous from 'When I'm 64.'"
Isle of Wight Rock festival was a big deal in the late '60s. Dylan played there in '69 and Hendrix in '70, a few weeks before dying. It was his last live appearance.
I don't have a choice. I have a dog. He lets me know his morning needs and doesn't give up.
“First the Hurkle Durkle, then the Argle Bargle.”
— A. Scalia
Are you trying to tell me that masturbation has absolutely nothing to do with this?
My life experience splits people into two groups, Morning people, and night people.
I'm a morning people. Because morning people are morally superior. Night people are selfish lazy slugs.
Of course not.
The world needs all kinds.
I would go into the office an hour or more before opening. I got lots of work done before the phone started to ring. I also liked to be present when the day was spinning up. On mornings I came in "on time" I never felt in sync with the day.
Early in career a sales rep I liked and respected anounced he would be on vacation for 10 days. I teased him he was going to sleep in until 7AM every morning. He said hell no. Vacation was HIS time. He wasn't wasting it in bed.
I still think thats the attitude to have.
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